With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

“Keep them mowing blades sharp” Blog Advent Calendar Day 7 December 7, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:15 am
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Seven days into December already so that makes it day 7 of this years blog post advent calendar. This year, if you haven’t been following it, is the ABC of British bands. December 7th makes it the letter ‘G’ so today I bring you Genesis.

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Phil Collins appeared as a face in the crowd in the Beatles film ‘A Hard Days Night‘ he also played some percussion on George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass‘ album. The band was formed at Charterhouse School and their name was allegedly chosen by kiddy fiddler Jonathan King. He also produced their first album ‘From Genesis To Revelation’.

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Genesis were very much an albums band and they have had five UK number one albums. Their first was ‘Duke’ in 1980, which means none of the Peter Gabriel era albums topped the charts. They never had a UK number one single, but they did top the singles charts in Canada and the USA with “Misunderstanding” (1980) and “Invisible Touch” (1986) respectively. Now enjoy a wide selection of Genesis songs, My favourite is “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)”, what is yours?

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“They joined together and decided not to fight” Blog Advent Calendar Day 6 December 6, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:00 am
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TheFarmNot long to go now until the bearded weirdy drops down your chimney is it? Today is 6th December and that means it’s day six in this years Advent blog post series. In case you are new to this site let me remind you that this years theme is the ABC of British bands and today we are at the letter ‘F’. I have chosen Liverpool’s the Farm to appear behind the little cardboard door on todays advent calendar. Let’s face it, they’re better than chocolate aren’t they?

616e5b539694f09ffa5b400cc46ec280The band formed in 1983 although they didn’t score their first chart hit until 1990 when they had two UK top ten hits with “Groovy Train” and “All Together Now” both from their album ‘Spartacus’. That album was produced by Stan Cullimore and Paul Heaton off of the Housemartins and Suggs off of Madness.

3l“All Together Now” is about the unauthorised spontaneous truce between German and British soldiers on Christmas Day 1914. This was the first Christmas of the first world war and the soldiers stepped out of their trenches for a game of football. Sadly the powers that be made sure that it never happened again. The song has been rereleased for football reasons twice as well. For Everton’s 1995 FA Cup Final appearance and for the England team in their 2004 European Championships campaign. There is charity recording of the song scheduled for release on 15th December in aid of the Shorncliffe Trust and the British Red Cross. Shara Nelson, Clean Bandit, Gabrielle, Alexandra Burke, David Gray, Guy Chambers, Amelle Berrabah, Mick Jones (off of the Clash), Jermain Jackman and Gorgon City are among a number of artists who took part in the recording. Buy it, you know it makes sense!

 

“Robin Hood and William Tell And Ivanhoe and Lancelot” Blog Advent Calendar Day 5 December 5, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:30 am
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December 5th has arrived and it’s therefore day 5 of this years advent blog posts. As you know this years theme is the ABC of British bands, which means today we arrive at the fifth letter of the alphabet; ‘E’. My choice for today is the Electric Light Orchestra a.k.a ELO. The band was initially an offshoot of the Move and they set out to combine orchestral sounds with rock music. It may well have been Roy Wood‘s idea but he left early on to form Wizzard. Meanwhile Jeff Lynne made ELO into a world straddling colossus.

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The band’s first UK hit was “10538 Overture“. The song was originally a b-side for the Move. Wood, Lynne and Bev Bevan (also off of the Move) added orchestral strings to it. After John Lennon heard one of my favourite ELO songs, “Showdown” he began referring to them as Beatles Junior. The band had number one singles across the world; and “Turn To Stone” and “Shine A Little Love” were number one in Canada and “Living Thing” topped the charts in South Africa. Sadly, in my opinion at least, there only UK number one was the rather dreadful “Xanadu” which also featured Olivia Newton John. That song was also a number one in the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. The band had 15 UK top ten hits in the UK between 1972 and 1981. This was only bettered by their eighteen top ten hits in France from 1972 to 1986.

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So now it’s time for you to enjoy a selection of ELO songs, apologies but I have not included the aforementioned “Xanadu”.

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“I’m a atom brained man with a heart of gold”

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:05 am
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I knew that late, great Swiss artist H.R. Giger had produced a number of LP/ album covers, but I hadn’t appreciated just how many there were. Many of you must know Giger from his amazing designs for the ‘Alien’ films, but check out his album art and let me know what you think. I reckon there is some great stuff there.

‘Brain Salad Surgery‘ – Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP)

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‘Attahk’ – Magma

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‘How The Gods Kill’ – Danzig

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‘KooKoo‘ – Debbie Harry

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‘Frankenchrist‘ – Dead Kennedys

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‘To Mega Therion’ – Celtic Frost

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‘The Shiver’ – Walpurgis

Walpurgis (1969) by The Shiver

‘Atomic Playboys’ – Steve Stevens

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‘Hallucinations’ – Atrocity

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‘Heartwork’ – Carcass

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‘Eparistera Daimones’ – Triptykon

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‘Mumien Kantate Fur Rockband’ – Floh De Cologne

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‘Recesses For The Depraved’ – Sacrosanct

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‘Freiheit Fuer Die Sklaven’ – Pankow

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In addition to those 14 albums there was also;

“The Jam Was Moving” – Debbie Harry (single)

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Jonathan Davis – Korn (Microphone Stand)

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“Turn your music so loud let’s attract a big crowd We’ll drink a round to this town and bid goodbye” December 4, 2014

Filed under: News,Obituary — justwilliam1959 @ 11:44 pm
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Ian McLagan Green Circles 87444

It was with great sadness that I heard of the death of keyboard supremo Ian McLagan today aged just 69. His death was caused by complications from a stroke that he suffered earlier this week. Ian or Mac was keyboard player for the Small Faces and the Faces. He also played sessions for the Rolling Stones among others.

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His playing of the Hammond Organ was a major part of the Small Faces sound. He also received co-writing credits for some excellent songs. The Faces “Cindy Incidentally” was my favourite of his cowrites. He wrote that song with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart. He also played on one of my favourite Rolling Stones songs, “Miss You“.

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My thoughts are with Ian’s family, friends and fans. RIP Ian McLagan

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“And I’ll play you old 45’s That now mean nothing to me” Blog Advent Calendar Day 4 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:30 am
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Already it’s day 4 of this years advent calendar blog posts. so it’s 4th December and in the ABC of British bands we have so far visited Sheffield (ABC), Liverpool (Beatles) and London (Clash). Today we go north to Glasgow to hear from Deacon Blue. This is a band who have been around nearly 30 years. They took their name from a Steely Dan song from 1977’s ‘Aja’ album entitled “Deacon’s Blues”.

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Deacon Blue had the first of their seven UK top 20 hits in 1988 with “Real Gone Kid“. Their most recent top 20 hit was the third release of “Dignity” in 1994. Their biggest hit to date was  cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David‘s “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” which made it to number 2 in 1990.

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I hope you enjoy this little selection of Deacon Blue songs.

 

The Who – First Direct Arena Leeds – Tuesday 2nd December 2014

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 12:18 am
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I finally got to see the Who play live on Tuesday 2nd December 2014 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. I have always been a little reluctant to see them given that two key members; John Entwistle and Keith Moon are no longer with us. But my good friend John Williams convinced me to go by describing the band as one of the greatest bands to see before they die! The Standard Lamps filled the support slot very well. Clearly an accomplished band that sound retro with touches of perhaps the Jam and Ocean Colour Scene.

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The Who started as they clearly meant to go on with “I Can’t Explain” followed by “Substitute”. This was a set list overloaded with Who classics including many of my favourites; “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “Pinball Wizard”, “Magic Bus”, “Who Are You” and “Baba O’Riley”. For me the peak was “5:15” which is my favourite ever Who song from 1973’s classic album ‘Quadrophenia’. There were even outings for the somewhat underplayed “Join Together” and “Squeeze Box” among many, many more.

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There was an amazing film clip of John Entwistle’s magnificent bass playing and film and vocals of Keith Moon’s “Bell Boy” again from ‘Quadrophenia’. There was even time for a live rendition of the mini rock opera “A Quick One While He’s Away“. The band was on stage for well over two hours and the band very ably supported Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. For me the stand out players were Pino Palladino on bass and Zak Starkey who was truly magnificent on drums.

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Daltrey was having a few problems with his ear monitors. I don’t know if that resulted in the lack of an encore or whether one wasn’t planned. So we had no “My Generation”. But that really made no difference to what was an amazing show. I am certainly glad that I went.

Please note that none of the pictures or video used in this blog was taken by me.

 

” You must explain why this must be Did you lie when you spoke to me?” Blog Advent Calendar Day 3 2014 December 3, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:07 am
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December 3rd and day three of my ABC of British bands advent post for 2014. So as it’s day it must be the letter ‘C’. This sounds a bit like Sesame Street doesn’t it? Anyway today’s band is going to seem like an obvious choice for my regular readers; it’s the Clash.

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I love the ‘London Calling‘ album and it often appears in many of the ‘best album’ lists that magazines publish when they run out of ideas. But did you know that it appears in the best albums of the 70s lists in the UK and the best albums of the 80s in the USA. This is because it came out in 1979 in the UK and it wasn’t released until 1980 in the UK.

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Now I hope that you enjoy this little selection of Clash ditties that were hidden behind the little cardboard flap on the advent calendar for today.

 

 

 

“I’m in love for the first time don’t you know it’s gonna last” Blog Advent Calendar Day 2 2014 December 2, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:03 am
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December 2nd and therefore day 2 of this years Christmas blog post advent extravaganza. We are also at the letter B in the ABC of British bands. Who will it be today? I think you can guess can’t you? Yes it’s the Fab Four a.k.a the Moptops a.k.a the Beatles. To be fair the pictures are a big clue aren’t they?

Photo of BEATLES

Back in their early days the band produced their own kind of advent thing with a free flexi disc to fan club members that always included the odd Christmas song. Did you also know that the name of the band is not mentioned once in the 1964 film ‘A Hard Days Night‘? Or that the first Beatle to have a solo number one single was George Harrison with “My Sweet Lord“. I already knew a lot of this trivia but I learned a lot that I didn’t on the excellent site beatlestrivia.com you really need to check it out.

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Anyway now I hope that you enjoy some of my favourite Beatles songs and one of their Christmas songs.

 

“Looking for the girl that meets supply with demand” Blog Advent Calendar Day 1 2014 December 1, 2014

Filed under: Christmas — justwilliam1959 @ 1:30 am
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ABC

Blimey where has the year gone? It seems like only yesterday that I was putting together last years Christmas posts for this blog. This years advent blog post theme is an A to Z of British bands. I should point out that they are not all bands that I like, but hopefully someone out there does. Anyway the first post on this first day of December relates to one of Sheffield’s finest, a band who in my opinion recorded one of the best albums of the 1980s. I am referring, of course to ABC. Is there a better way to start a series like this? I think not!

Martin Fry basted and wrapped in Baco Foil ready for Christmas

Martin Fry basted and wrapped in Baco Foil ready for Christmas

ABC’s début album ‘The Lexicon Of Love‘ released in 1982 was also a major success for former Buggle Trevor Horn who produced it. The album topped the UK album charts, although sadly the band never topped the UK singles charts. They did reach the peak of the US Dance Chart on three occasions from 1982 to 1987 though. The band is now largely just singer Martin Fry and can be found on many 80’s nostalgia tours. Now it’s time for you to enjoy a few of my favourite ABC songs.

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